210 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
large as a small peais frequently obtained from the heads of a single 
lant. 
i The cultivation of the poppy is becoming an important industry in 
Vermont, especially in Addison County, on Lake Champlain. Mr. Rob- 
bins, of Hancock, has cultivated it for some years, and specimens of 
his opium have yielded 15.75 per cent. of morphia. Two years ago Mr. 
Monkton, who resides near the village of Middlebury, raised $3,000 
worth of opium. Mr. W. C. Wilson, of Monkton Ridge, has been culti- 
vating it for five years, and has derived a handsome profit froth the sales. 
On one farm in East Middlebury there are several acres under cultiva- 
tion, and the business is gradually extending throughout that part of 
the State. 
Mr. Banudrye, of Nevato, Marin County, California, has just com- 
menced the culture of the poppy in that town. Specimens of opium 
analyzed yielded 5.75 per cent. of morphia, which, though small, is 
nearly equal to the average of opium from India. Mr. Baudrye sold 
his opium in California for $7 per pound. Mr. Guillardon, of Lower 
Lake, Lake County, has thirteen acres planted with the poppy, which 
he is cultivating both for opium and oil. A gentleman who is familiar 
with opium culture in India and Germany thinks the middle and 
southern portions of California are unsurpassed in soil and climate by 
any country for the production of opium, and that with a little irriga- 
tion two crops might be raised yearly. . 
THE BEET-SUGAR INDUSTRY, 
After a series of preliminary disappointments and failures, such as 
embarrass almost every improvement, the economic difficulties of the 
beet-sugar industy seem to have been measurably overcome. Much 
still remains to be done, but from the results already attained capital 
finds fair inducements for more extended investment, both in the cul- 
ture and the manufacture. Three establishments—oue at Chatsworth, 
Tllinois, one at Alvarado, California, and the third in Sauk County, 
Wisconsin—are manufacturing a good quality of sugar with sufficient 
suecess to render future efforts promising. Other manufacturing en- 
terprises have been projected, while in many places the experimental 
culture of the beet has been inaugurated with a view to manufacture. 
At Chatsworth, Llinois, in 1864, Messrs. Gennert purchased two thon- 
sand acres of land and erected a manufactory. They subsequently 
sold out to an association called “The Germania Sugar-Beet Company.” 
This establishment has motive power and machinery sufficient to work 
up fifty tons of beets per day. In 1866 they raised four thousand tons 
of sugar-beets on four hundred acres, at an estimated cost of $4 per 
. ton. Since that time, however, the cost of production is said to have 
been reduced to $2 70 per ton, through the introduction of machinery. 
The crop of 1870 covered only three hundred and thirty adres, of which 
one hundred and thirty proved an entire failure through the drought, 
leaving but two hundred productive acres. The seed used is known 
as the “ White Imperial,” and was imported specially for this enter- 
prise. In order {0 decrease the size of the beets, and thus obtain a 
larger percentage of sugar, the seed is sown quite thickly, and the 
roots in ordinary seasons do not exceed one and a half or two pounds 
each. By allowing the beets to grow large the crops may be raised to 
